Universe's End

Chapter 263: Calm before the Founding Storm

1. Calm before the Founding Storm

“So nice of everyone to join us,” Eric said with a dramatic bow as Tom, the First Monk, sighed.

“It’s the four of us, who are you showing off to?”

“It’s the thought that counts,” Eric shot back. “Anyway, what took you two so long?”

“Doing rounds with our people,” The Woodsman grunted. “The Spear had her own matters to attend to.”

“But we’re all here now,” Allison sighed. “Now then, we’ve had some time to settle in now that we’re officially one faction, but it's time we start looking elsewhere.”

“The Architect and The Vanguard,” Garfunk said, his furry paw-like hand drumming on the table.

“Any leads?” Eric asked, disappearing through some shadows only to reappear on the ceiling of the room, sitting there as if he weren’t upside down.

“Almost,” Garfunk answered on behalf of Allison.

“Almost?” Tom questioned.

“There was some… resistance,” Allison said, sounding uncertain herself. “The Golden Path Compass normally only takes a few years to lock on, but for some reason, it's like something keeps throwing it off, swiveling around constantly.”

“Meaning?” Erick asked.

“Meaning they don’t like to stay in one place for too long,” Garfunk said. “But we think we’re close to having it locked down. Which, ‘fer ‘yer information, required burning up several valuable treasures to empower the compass.”

“And so we convene to begin discussing strategy,” Eric said, pointing out the obvious. “It’s four versus two, we show up, kick ass, tadah. I don’t see the fuss.”

“The fuss is in the titles,” Tom pinched at his nose as if it was obvious. “The Architect, and The Vanguard. The same reason neither Allison nor Garfunk wanted to attack us head-on applies: an entrenched defensive position. But, if we assume their names aren’t for show, and given the defeat of the Bird-”

“A direct assault may not prove wise, even with the four of us combining efforts,” Allison said, finishing his train of thought for him.

“So, what, another tournament? Seems sort of repetitive,” Eric snorted.

“I have doubts they will take us up on that offer. Part of the reason we even agreed is that, while we had defenses to hold out, we risked running out of resources should it turn into siege warfare; a tournament was a way to avoid that. In their case, with a century to prepare behind the likes of someone known as the Architect, there is a strong possibility they may have the capabilities to remain self-sufficient.”

“So, we lure them and out-” Miming with his fingers, the Primordial Rogue cocked a finger back before mouthing pow.

“Ahh, yes, let us just jump them, a brilliant idea,” Garfunk grumbled. “I’m not against the idea in principle, but the practice seems difficult to pull off. Also, we ain’t actually tryna kill each other here. The person you never fuck with in the military is the one who controls the rations and logistics. This Architect guy, I’d rather we ain’t at each others throats.”

“How did that even work, what with spaceships and all that?” Eric asked, only to be ignored.

“We still need a point of leverage,” Tom said. “A way to force the turtle out of its shell.”

“What if we lower the stakes, but pressure them with the implication?” Allison suddenly said, as everyone glanced at her.

“Implication?” Eric asked.

“Yes, the implication of what could happen if they don’t take the more measured approach. Carrot and the stick. You guys said it yourself, half of the reason you agreed to our terms of a large-scale tournament to decide things was the potential threat of escalating violence that would only hurt all of us. We show our might, but we don’t make demands, and we make our strength speak for itself. I worry that a tournament would backfire on us, so let’s avoid making it a known consideration.”

“I see your thought process,” Tom said, frowning as he did. “But, problem.”

“Yes?” Allison asked.

“You do realize you didn’t actually say anything new there, right? You just restated it, in a flowery politician way.”

Allison scowled as Eric began giggling, even Garfunk had to turn away as he ‘coughed’ in the crook of his arm.

Crossing his arms, Allison could only shake her head.

Well, this was never going to be simple, was it?

“Christ on a stick, you would have been useless to call about moving furniture back in college,” Rory groaned as Zoey scowled at him.

“You’re not much better! Why don’t you have any fancy ‘corpse-retrieval’ inventions?”

“Why the hell would I have something like that?” Rory groaned. “And even if I do, they aren’t made for something this large!”

“What about your inventory?”

“Do you know how much stuff I have in there? I’d have to dump half of it out to fit this fucker in.”

“Bah, useless!” Zoey spat.

The two esteemed founders were currently bickering as they hauled the corpse of the Thunderous Lord from asteroid to asteroid, making their way up into the sky. Strong as they both were, it wasn’t the weight that was the issue; it was how damn unwieldy the corpse was.

In this case, magic was only so helpful. Sustained magical effort to lift a corpse that weighed many tons wasn’t something Rory was easily able to manage, and thus, at best, it was a supplementary tool. Then there was the fact that they’d had to make most of the journey on foot; no glider was anywhere close to being enough to handle that much weight. Flicker teleportation wasn’t in the cards, the sheer mass of the Thunderous Lord would have made the effort more exhausting then simply moving it themselves.

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Thus, the two founders had spent the better part of two weeks moving the damn thing, and by the end of their journey, both were beginning to grow frayed.

“Make a god damn crane,” Zoey growled, Sky Haven in sight.

“A crane would have done fuck all with this.”

“A floating crane.”

“I’m still trying to figure out a flying fortress.”

“Start with a flying crane, you fuck-face.”

“Fuck you,” Rory shot back.

“No, fuck you.”

“No, fuck yo-”

“Lady Trailblazer, Grand Architect!” A voice called out as their bickering was interrupted, a man on a glider zipping closer.

“Oh, LaRoy,” Zoey said, her tone instantly changing as Rory exhaled heavily, doing his best to suppress the snort. “Great timing.”

“For?” The man asked as two other figures appeared moments later.

“LaRoy, you cheating son of a- oh, my manners,” LeRissa said, catching herself as she switched to a graceful smile. “Esteemed Founders, welcome back!”

“You two assholes are so-” A third voice joined in, as Rory felt the entire thing was playing out like a mediocre comedy sketch. “Founders,” LiJuanto landed on their asteroid as his glider retracted, bowing deeply.

“Perfect, all three of you can be of great use to us right now,” Zoey said in a sweet voice that Rory recognized as her ‘I’m about to push off responsibilities’ tone. “You three, get your people and take care of hauling that bugger back the rest of the way. Oh, and if you drop it below, you’re in charge of getting it back up here.”

The three leaders looked at each other, a dawning realization they’d stepped into something they’d rather not have bothered with, only for their faces to blank over a moment later as they all deeply bowed.

“Of course, whatever the esteemed Lady Trailblazer commands.”

“Wonderful,” Zoey said, heaving the corpse in synch with Rory as the two tossed the corpse flatly on the ground, dusting her hands off a moment later. “Well, we’ve got things to attend to.”

“Uh, may we ask what exactly?” LaRoy questioned, bolder than the other two leaders.

“Anything other than this,” Zoey said with a snort before she turned toward Rory, their earlier spat already dust in the wind. “Unless you want to-”

“Anything other than this it is,” Rory repeated.

“Well, you heard him,” Zoey said as she turned back to the three village leaders. “Have fun!”

“The chanting work is….”

“Subpar?” Rory offered.

“Shit, is what I was going for,” Miguel laughed, having gotten far more comfortable around Rory. The older-younger man was currently turning the skyblazer suit around in his hands, investigating it. “I fully do not understand the inscription work here, and these things here-”

“Gem and core sockets,” Rory said.

“Well, I can’t say I was ever talented with gem crafting, much less anything to do with monster cores. But together, I can understand how well they might work together. But your problem is efficiency, even without understanding the other components, I can tell that much.”

“You’d be correct,” Rory sighed. “I don’t even want to mention just how many gems and monster cores were burnt up to even pulse three acceleration gates. Zoey thankfully didn’t need a kinetic redistribution system due to her damage nullification, but when you add that subsystem in as well, the entire suit is basically a proof of concept.”

“But you believe that with better skybound chanting, it would be practical.”

“You tell me,” Rory said.

“Well, I’ll agree with you on the merits,” Miguel nodded. “But the sheer gulf in practical skill needed to produce a suit like this-”

“The performance of the suit is relative,” Rory shook his head. “Yes, for myself or Zoey, we’d want to maximize the performance ceiling,but that isn’t all there is to these suits. I’d like to see these suits adopted for broader usage. But an ordinary Air Rider or such wouldn’t be able to sustain the cost. Or outside of Sky Haven, where the skybound traits are empowered, the loss of overall effectiveness will reduce the suit to non-viability entirely.”

“You want to scale it down rather than up.”

“Scaling it up will come with time,” Rory said. “But yes, that’s the idea. I basically was only able to manage the minimum effectiveness a skybound material could manage.”

“I see,” Miguel rubbed at his chin for a moment before shaking his head. “Or, no, I don’t. Why does it matter to you the ability to be adopted as a feasible thing for others?”

“Being an Architect isn’t just about my own creations,” Rory said before amending. “Or rather, it shouldn’t just be about my own creations. I have no issues with selfish inventions or the likes, but there is a level of significance that can be captured when others begin to adopt it as well. Rising tides lift all boats.”

“I think I understand some of what you’re getting at,” Miguel nodded. “So, you want me to attempt to recreate one of these suits.”

“Yes.”

“As I mentioned, the inscription and the-”

“Don’t worry about that part,” Rory said, shaking his head. “I can see about making some control samples, with lesser inscriptions and all that jazz, and rather than my own inscriptions and gems compensating for my shoddy skychanting, the new idea would be to find at what level we can make these suits nominally viable, relying on your level of skybound chanting and what the minimum accompanying level of inscription needed would be.”

“Not a bad idea. The Air Riders would greatly appreciate this. Currently, if a glider is destroyed, they’re forced to rely on a regular wingsuit, and those are… limited in what they can save you from. Even overly turbulent winds can be the end of someone relying on a pure wingsuit. Alright, I can do it. Is there anything else you’d like to direct toward me?”

“For now? No,” Rory said, shaking his head. “Once the Thunderous Lord is brought up here, I plan to begin working on it, or after the little celebration Sky Haven is throwing over that menace being dealt with.”

“It still shocks me somewhat,” Miguel admitted. “That such a tyrannical fixture of my entire life was dealt with so swiftly.”

“It couldn’t have been managed so smoothly without you,” Rory said. “The sky island you showed me was the perfect place to launch an overwhelming first strike from. We just had to bait the beast in, track it, and then off we went. It almost never had a chance to respond in any fashion, overwhelmed from start to finish. Now, was it the most effective way of earning progress toward our ascensions? No, utilizing such methods hardly ever are, but what mattered he was dealing with it for you all.”

“To which we appreciate,” Miguel said with a sigh. “A great beast has been felled, and thus the world does grow smaller.”

Rory stared at the man in silence for several seconds before he cracked.

“What?” Miguel asked, genuinely perplexed.

“I sometimes forget that for as much as you are Zoey’s people, you all haven’t had a chance to explore much beyond the bounds of Sky Haven,” Rory answered. “Trust me, there is a very, very large world out there. One that might now be easier to reach. Will be easier to reach if we succeed with some of these experiments.”

“In the end, my sight is limited,” Miguel surrendered, mildly lowering his head in admittance to his own worldly ignorance. “That aside, what exactly are your plans for the corpse of the Thunderous Lord?”

“Well, we didn’t receive any surprise goodies,” Rory sighed. “So, it's mostly just monster parts. But I’ve been playing with the idea of making myself some new armor at some point. My current armor came from the scales of a tier seven territory alpha, but I got rather lucky in the process and accidentally ended up with some aberrant grade materials that have let it outlast its normal ‘Best-By’ date by a large degree.”

“Best-by date?” Miguel questioned.

“Just a phrase. Point is, I made this armor near the beginning of tier seven for me, and while she’s served me well, I do believe a new gear upgrade is due sometime soon.”

“And you plan to use the Thunderous Lord for that?”

“Not completely,” Rory shook his head. “Just in case I find anything that fits what I’d want to see for my next set of armor. Outside of that, we will have to see. The one issue that Zoey and I have discussed is that we can’t get too ambitious for the time being. So, any goals with the Thunderous Lord will be kept relatively reasonable.”

“And why exactly have you two discussed as such?” Miguel asked.

“The others,” Rory said, looking off into the distance. “After the defeat of the Bird, I figured we’d have some downtime, but it's been around seven months now. At a year, I have a feeling that if Eon was giving us any breathing room, maybe throwing a purposeful obscuration in the way, that refractory period will be over.”

“And then?”

Rory crossed his arms, mulling the answer over before shrugging.

“Well, hopefully not war.”